10/15/2009 @ 12:00PM

Recession's Pain

Two Forbes Entrepreneurs of the Year, from 2007 and 2008, can’t even be found on this year’s Best Small Companies ranking. What happened to them?

Abaxis
makes a $12,000 device that can do blood readings in a doctor’s office in 12 minutes. Veterinarians use it for dogs, but the Union City, Calif. company has failed to get it into enough doctors’ offices to make our ranking (see 200 Best Small Companies). Abaxis should hit revenue of $125 million in the March 2010 fiscal year, up from $106 million last year, but earnings will be only $16 million, according to Thomson Financial Network’s survey of analyst estimates.

Plunging commodity prices have socked revenues of
Metalico,
a Cranford, N.J. scrapyard company. They will likely total $250 million in 2009, down from $818 million last year. Chief Carlos Aguero blames some of Metalico’s problems on the excess debt he accumulated while trying to expand. Since our story he has slashed debt from $220 million to $100 million by selling stock and liquidating inventory and receivables. For the last two quarters the company has returned to profitability, and the stock price is back up to around $4.50 from a low below $2 (shares were at $3 when our story ran). There’s also some good news on the pricing horizon: Copper and platinum are creeping back up to last year’s highs.